U.S. taxpayer dollars must not reward his killer

For more than two decades, the Palestinian government has dedicated as much as half of its foreign aid to payouts for terrorists and their families. That amounts to monetary rewards for attacking and killing Israelis, Americans and others, with U.S. taxpayers inadvertently funding Palestinian terrorism. But we are one giant step closer to ending this gross misuse of American taxpayer money, with the U.S. House of Representatives set to vote Tuesday on the Taylor Force Act.

The bipartisan legislation would halt aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until it stops its longtime system of rewards and bonuses for terrorism enshrined in a comprehensive series of Palestinian laws and decrees. These provide imprisoned terrorists monthly stipends of as much as $3,429, along with $25,000 one-time bonuses and post-prison civil service jobs that pay three times the average monthly Palestinian wage.

The amounts of the payouts depend on the length of the prison term. So the more severe the attack, the longer the sentence, and the greater the financial reward. These payouts date back to the 1960s.

Terrorists’ families also benefit substantially from the attacks: In addition to a lump-sum payment and monthly stipends of at least $364 in perpetuity, the families receive a lifetime of free health insurance, tuition and other government-funded support.

In 2017 alone, the PA allocated $344 million for tens of thousands of convicted terrorists and their families. Since 2013, the PA has dedicated more than $1.5 billion to its “martyrs” funds. The payments comprise 7% of the PA’s overall budget and 49.6% of its foreign aid.

The Taylor Force Act, championed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is named for Taylor Force, a 28-year-old Vanderbilt University graduate student from Texas who was stabbed to death near Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist in March 2016. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, Force had completed U.S. Army tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The carnage also left 10 people injured.

Just months after the attack, Graham began working with Force’s parents to enact legislation to prevent the attacker or his family from gaining financial rewards from the Palestinian government.

Palestinian officials openly justify the payments to families as “welfare” and contend the attacks against civilians are part of their “struggle against the occupation.” The killers and other perpetrators of such violence are celebrated as heroes by the PA, which honors them by naming schools, public squares and stadiums after them.

That this practice of “pay-for-slay” has encouraged Palestinians to carry out attacks on civilians seems clear: Since September 2015, Palestinian terrorists have killed 59 people and injured another 827 in 186 stabbing attacks and 163 shootings in restaurants, on city streets and even in people’s homes. The assaults also include 60 incidents of terrorists slamming vehicles into crowds and bombing a bus. Still more attacks — 100 stabbings and 12 incidents of vehicle-ramming — were foiled by security forces in 2016 alone.

The PA has made its way around past attempts by U.S. lawmakers to stop rewarding terrorists and their families for these terrorist acts by making technical changes to the program, transferring responsibility for administering “martyr” funds to the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

The Taylor Force Act, however, would suspend future U.S. financial assistance to the West Bank and Gaza until the secretary of state can certify to Congress that the PA is taking credible steps to end acts of violence against Israeli citizens. And that the Palestinian Authority has terminated payments for acts of terrorism against Israeli citizens.

The act has quickly made significant headway in Congress, passing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in August with strong bipartisan support as well as backing from the Trump administration. The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill unanimously a few weeks ago.

The Taylor Force Act is the strongest and most viable route to keeping tax dollars out of the hands of terrorists. Not only would the legislation set clear consequences if the PA persists in rewarding Palestinians for committing acts of violence, it would also compel the PA to use U.S. aid as it was intended: to support legitimate Palestinian needs, like wastewater projects, the East Jerusalem Hospital Network and children’s vaccinations.

It is incumbent on our lawmakers to finally stop Palestinians from siphoning U.S. aid to reward Palestinians who kill civilians — Israeli, American or otherwise. The Taylor Force Act is a critical step toward ending this murderous scheme.

Diament is executive director for public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the country's largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization. Follow him at @NDiament.